I believe the only reason the Sweet 16 comp is thrown out there is due to his salary and 2/3 of our previous coaches made that it that far. Realistic expectations for our program(in my opinion) is making the tourney. We're never going to fund basketball at the levels of football and baseball.

Doesn't make sense that Buzz is the 11th highest paid coach in NCAA and Elko is tied for 24th. I realize football has a lot of more moving parts to fund but tell me other then maybe Kansas, UNC, Duke and UConn who funds or has the ability to fund their basketball better then us. We have major SEC money that teams like Gonzaga and anybody in the Big East and Big 12 can't touch. What other funding do these other 29 teams do that we don't. I am honestly very curious

Thinking our "SEC money" puts us in a financial tier above Gonzaga is why this conversation is so hard to have.

People get caught up in Buzz's salary. I'm sure if you look at our entire coaching staff's salary, compared to a lot of teams, it's not that much. We don't have a bunch of former head coaches or highly sought after assistants on our staff. We have Buzz's cult.

Now, if you're talking potential money, sure, we're rich as hell I guess, but it doesn't matter. And maybe if we had a coach like Nate Oats he'd find ways to tap into that potential. But an alternate reality doesn't matter. From a salaries, NIL, facilities, etc standpoint I think we're probably... fifth just in Texas? We're definitely behind Houston and Baylor, and I think we're probably behind Tech and Texas.

a.froman said:

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Doesn't make sense that Buzz is the 11th highest paid coach in NCAA and Elko is tied for 24th. I realize football has a lot of more moving parts to fund but tell me other then maybe Kansas, UNC, Duke and UConn who funds or has the ability to fund their basketball better then us. We have major SEC money that teams like Gonzaga and anybody in the Big East and Big 12 can't touch. What other funding do these other 29 teams do that we don't. I am honestly very curious

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Add Jimbo's payout to Elko's and tell me where places us…

Similarly our kicking around money includes raiding the piggy bank at TMF for ~$20 million and then committing ~$7 million to both Jimbo and Mike each plus $10 million for Elko's staff plus buyouts for Jimbo's.

But keep pretending we don't have information if you wish.

aggie-1997 said:

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AggByMarriage said:

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PJYoung said:

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t - cam said:

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What's shocking is our fanbase still seems to be holding the Covid years and a ridiculous snub 3 years ago against him. He's been a great coach here pretty much the whole way.

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and now that seems to have switched somewhat to 'it's an ugly brand of basketball' and insinuations that we somehow are lucky to win these games.

As long as the goal posts are moving a certain way I'm fine with it.

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I think this is more than fair statement.
For someone who knows basketball, this style will grate on you for a while. It's not pretty, not meant to be pretty, it is meant to be effective.
Buzzball = Moneyball ; most of the decisions are analytically delivered by a thoughtful, emotional guy.

The best metric I can think of for a coach is "does his players like playing for him?"

Did anyone else see after the game during the handshake exchange that Coach was talking to Jace, Zuric, Solo, and Manny? It wasn't "Great game!", he was talking into them something individual.

"Does the guy win? Does the guy get us to the Final Four? Because I haven't seen it!!"… wish these guys would go away. There are plenty of GREAT coaches that don't have a championship. Lots and lots have never made it to the Final Four… and yes we are indeed winning.

Wish the Aggie Football Fans would start being just Aggie Fans.

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I agree with this. Especially the metric for a coach. We saw the nucleus of this team all return because they like playing for Buzz and believe in what he is doing. In this new world of NIL and portal, I think that speaks volumes.

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It says everything I want to know about Coach Williams and his program.

We've risen as the SEC over-all has risen. Look no further than the ACC win/loss count this year. How long ago was it that the SEC was a farce compared to the ACC? Five, six?

The best way to make the Sweet 16 is to be seeded in the top 16. How many times have we been seeded in the top 16? We have to get over the political prejudices to do that.

a.froman said:

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In my opinion the Sweet 16 is about equal to making the 12 team football playoff. In a time of NIL, transfer portal and our resources we certainly expect our football coach to make the playoffs in his first 6 years, why wouldn't we have the same expectations for our basketball coach?

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That's an interesting take. The 64-team format has been around since 1975. The Football format has been around for how long? And Ohio State was what seed?

The Football Tournament is too new. If it helps you great.

And I do agree with you. A coach's success is expressed by his record. I think A&M has a fair shot to go very deep this year. However, the have to first run the gauntlet of the SEC Tournament.

Let's say they WIN the SEC tournament. Would they be seeded a 1? Lots of variables. And at the end of the day, I don't care get to the Dance and see what happens.

Comparing Football to Basketball is not productive.

t - cam said:

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What's shocking is our fanbase still seems to be holding the Covid years and a ridiculous snub 3 years ago against him. He's been a great coach here pretty much the whole way.

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AggByMarriage said:

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a.froman said:

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In my opinion the Sweet 16 is about equal to making the 12 team football playoff. In a time of NIL, transfer portal and our resources we certainly expect our football coach to make the playoffs in his first 6 years, why wouldn't we have the same expectations for our basketball coach?

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That's an interesting take. The 64-team format has been around since 1975. The Football format has been around for how long? And Ohio State was what seed?

The Football Tournament is too new. If it helps you great.

And I do agree with you. A coach's success is expressed by his record. I think A&M has a fair shot to go very deep this year. However, the have to first run the gauntlet of the SEC Tournament.

Let's say they WIN the SEC tournament. Would they be seeded a 1? Lots of variables. And at the end of the day, I don't care get to the Dance and see what happens.

Comparing Football to Basketball is not productive.

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Slight nitpick, 1975 was the first year with at large bids and in 1985 it expanded to 64 teams. Your point still stands of course.

There are way too many variables and flukes for S16 to be a valid measure. Tournament seeding is much better although there are political factors there that are less than helpful. Buzz has not done a good job getting protected seeding and has paid for it. He needs to do better. But as this season has shown so far, I have no doubts he'll get that done. Love him.

You don't see long term coaches like in the old days but I hope he's here for a long time.

txag72 said:

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We've risen as the SEC over-all has risen. Look no further than the ACC win/loss count this year. How long ago was it that the SEC was a farce compared to the ACC? Five, six?

The best way to make the Sweet 16 is to be seeded in the top 16. How many times have we been seeded in the top 16? We have to get over the political prejudices to do that.

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As of today we would tie our best seed ever at 3.